Comparing Wire Transfer Fees at the Top 10 U.S. Banks

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With wire transfers, money can be sent from thousands of miles away in matter of minutes. In fact, a wire transfer from your bank is one of the quickest ways to send and receive money both within the United States and all over the world. See how much it costs for domestic and foreign wire transfer fees at the top 10 banks in America.

Due to the extremely high speed of these transactions, the cost of wire transfers tends to be much greater than any other money transfer method. It also eliminates the possibility of scams that often involve the checks, which can take some time to clear. Here is a detailed comparison of the wire transfer fees charged by the 10 largest U.S. banks:

Like all banks fees, wire transfer fees can change. For PNC Bank customers, the cost of domestic outgoing wire transfers will increase from $25 to $30, effective May 10, 2015. The fee increase increase puts the cost of PNC’s domestic outgoing wire transfer closer to the fee charge by the biggest banks.

The most recent fee increase that occurred was at Citibank on May 5, 2015, when all wire transfer services at the bank became more expensive. The domestic and foreign incoming fees have been increased from $10 to $15. Outgoing fees also went up from $25 to $35 for domestic wire transfers, and from $40 to $45 for international wire transfers.

Wire transfers are one of the more expensive services from banks. Photo credit: Shutterstock

Wire transfer fee comparison

According to MyBankTracker’s March 2015 analysis, all of the domestic wire transfer fees at the 10 biggest banks have remained the same as the previous quarter — with averages of $15.50 for incoming and $27.40 for outgoing transfers. The averages also stayed the same for both incoming and outgoing foreign wire transfers at $18 and $47.50 per transfer, respectively, at the 10 tops banks in the U.S. (Remember, these averages don’t account for the upcoming PNC Bank fee hike.)

At any given bank, incoming wire transfers tend to be considerably cheaper than for outgoing ones, while domestic wire transfer fees are significantly lower than that of international transfers.

The highest wire transfer fee is $65 for each outgoing foreign wire transfer at BB&T Bank, while the lowest fee for any type of a wire transaction is $15 — which is the amount charged at a majority of banks for both domestic and foreign incoming wire transfers.

Ways to get discounts on wire transfer fees

Note that the fees shown in the table above are reflective of transfers made in person at a branch and outgoing transfers sent in U.S. dollars.

This is noteworthy because the fee for foreign outgoing wire transfers sent in U.S. dollars is not the same as transferring money in foreign currency. Some banks — including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase Bank and Capital One — will charge $5-$10 more if transfers are made in a different currency.

In general, banks will charge you $5-$10 less for making a wire transfer online through the bank’s website rather than in person at a branch. In the case of Chase Bank, you will be paying $5 less for all outgoing wire transfers made through Chase.com, while Citibank will give you a $10 discount on all outgoing wire transfers made online.

If you plan to send money on a regular basis, either in the U.S. or overseas, you can set up repetitive wire transfers, which will give you a $5 discount on each item transferred. For instance, Wells Fargo offers domestic outgoing wire transfers at $30, but if you set up repetitive wire transfer, each transaction will cost you $25.

Domestic vs. foreign wire transfer

Domestic and foreign wire transfers differ more than just in fees. A domestic wire transfer is a way to electronically transfer funds between two bank accounts or to transfer cash within the U.S. — while foreign wire transfers will move your money anywhere in the world. This is why foreign wire transfers tend to cost significantly more.

Domestically, the cheapest way to wire money is pretty straightforward — it’s usually a flat rate regardless of the amount transferred.

Foreign wire transfers

It is a bit more complicated when it comes to foreign wire transfers, also known as remittance transfers. This type of transfer is commonly used to send money to family members in foreign countries.

Foreign wire transfers take many consumers by surprise when they find out that the recipients have received less money than originally sent.

Currently, at the 10 largest U.S. retail banks, foreign wire transfers range from $40 to $65 per transfer. This amount depends on whether the transfer was conducted in-person or online, and sent in U.S. dollars or in foreign currency.

In addition to the transfer fee, senders should be aware that foreign wire transfer fees also come with additional charges they must consider — including an exchange rate, taxes and correspondent fees.

Tip: To determine the best value, you should consider both the wire transfer fees and the exchange rate. The exchange rate can cut into the amount you are sending and depends on how strong the dollar is.

Rules and regulations

To prevent this unfair practice and to make the process more transparent, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) created this regulation, which took effect in February 2013. It ensures more clarity in how the exchange rate is handled and presented to customers in the U.S. by all financial institutions.

Although the exact rate applied in the transaction will be unknown until the wire transfer is actually initiated, the consumer will be presented with useful information including the fees, exchange rate and net funds to be delivered, before completing the transaction.

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When wire transfers are cheaper elsewhere

Many people turn to banks to wire transfer money, but depending on the type of transaction, other money transmission providers may be able to provide the same service at a better price — although there is no single method that is definitively cheaper than others.

Money transmitters, for example, usually impose foreign transfer fees based on the recipient’s location, amount transferred, and delivery time. That differs from banks and credit unions, which usually charge a flat fee.

Tip: Using a money transmitter can be especially advantageous for transferring amounts that are less than $1,000. Going to a bank is a better idea when you are transferring larger sums of money, usually between $1,000 to $5,000, because there’s just a flat fee to worry about.

Wire transfers at credit unions

Many people are aware of the fact that wire transfer fees are actually cheaper at credit unions than at banks — a lot cheaper. In fact, many credit unions don’t charge a fee for incoming wire transfers — both domestic and foreign.

According to a March 2014 analysis by MyBankTracker, the average fee for an incoming domestic wire at the 10 largest credit unions was $4.80, compared to $15 at banks, while outgoing domestic wire transfers cost an average of $17.30, compared to $26.40 at banks. The average fee for outgoing foreign wire transfers at the top 10 credit unions was $36.22, versus the average of $47.50 at the top 10 banks. The average costs of incoming foreign wire transfers at credit unions was $12.40 per transfer, compared to $17.50 at banks.

Essentially, all of the wire transfer methods will provide you with the same service — the deciding factor here will be accessibility and the cost. If you’re someone who needs to make wire transfers regularly, it might not be a bad idea to consider switching to a credit union.

What is your cheap way of sending money to someone? How does it compare to bank wire transfers? Share your answers by leaving a comment below.

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I use bitcoin, which costs around 3 cents per transaction, both domestically and internationally. However, if I want to convert back to local fiat currency, I will face additional costs and delays. Fortunately, I usually don’t convert back to fiat.

Theresa Kim

That’s great! The fact that it costs 3 cents per transaction is unreal! Thanks for sharing your awesome method of sending money both domestically and internationally.

endmathabusenow

A difficulty with bitcoin is that it is not really a currency and fluctuates in value. Today bitcoin as varied between $232.13 and $246.14. Over several days the variations can be much higher–between slightly less than $220 and slightly more than $260.

The trick is to be able to do the bitcoin transaction without holding bitcoins for long. This method may not last for more than a few more years if that–as bitcoin transactions are artificial cheap because the expensive verification process is paid by minting new coins and bitcoin exchanges likely due transactions at below costs because they end up holding the extra bitcoins expecting future appreciation.

endmathabusenow

If the person who did the bitcoin transaction is still holding the bitcoins from 4 months ago– unless his alternative currency crashed, he likely lost at least 20% in dollars as the price then was over $300/bitcoin and is now about $240/bitcoin.

Mat Schaffer

For US domestic, I have BillPay mail a paper check. Which they can usually photo deposit for free. Antiquated, but cheap.

For international Charles Schwab has fairly low wire fees ($25 international) and no fees on international ATM withdraws. So if you can find a Plus network no fee ATM in another country (e.g., Japan Post ATMs) you can move money between personal accounts for free up to your daily ATM limit.

So far Japan Post domestic transfers seem to be between ¥200-¥800 which isn’t expensive enough to warrant a big search for cheaper means yet.

Brandon

There are online money transfer solutions, such as Transferwise, Currencyfair or Paysera. Depending on the destination, I one of these options to get lower fees. The latter also has a flat fee for transferring money to a foreign bank account.

http://www.mybanktracker.com Simon Zhen

These companies are definitely getting more exposure these days (I see actual advertisements for them in NYC).

I think it will take quite some time for people to gravitate towards these online money transfer outfits when they are so used to using brick-and-mortar businesses for these services.

Peter Bennett

Incoming or outgoing, you’re going to pay, but it’s good to know you can soften the blow by going online to execute the transaction. Thanks for bring this information to my attention.

Theresa Kim

My pleasure Peter! Those $5 to $10 discounts do make a difference.

Many banks offer discounts on certain bank fees when the request is made over the phone or online — like stop payment, wire transfer and etc. Make sure to check with your bank if they offer tiered pricing on a given.

Thanks for the comment!

Lad_22

I am a customer at HSBC USA and recently received an international wire transfer from my client’s bank, HSBC UK. I was charged $25 by the sending bank, HSBC UK, plus they charged the client a fee to send the wire. How can HSBC UK charge me when I’m not their customer? Is there any way to avoid this?

http://www.mybanktracker.com Simon Zhen

What HSBC checking account do you have? The incoming wire transfer fee varies by the account. In any case, you should not be paying $25 since I see that the fee is either $12 for HSBC Advance checking or $15 for HSBC Choice Checking and Basic Banking.

I’d take it up with HSBC USA to inquire on why you were charged more than you should have.

sophia

This exact situation happened to me and I am having NO luck trying to get sense out of HSBC (UK or US). I wired money from my normal HSBC UK account to my HSBC US Advance account and had it confirmed that the outgoing wire had no fees and a good exchange rate (HSBC UK are heavily advertising their low/no fees policy at the moment) but when the money arrived in my US account it was less $25. Neither bank are claiming the charges, but I struggle to see how HSBC UK could charge a $25 fee considering they generally deal in GBP. Another transfer initiated from the same HSBC UK account arrived in my US bank account less $12 this time, which is clearly indicated as a “FUNDS TRANSFER INCOMING FEE” in my statement. Good to know that it should only be $12 for incoming wires, but for now my struggle with HSBC customer service continues…

forthewinn

Bank of America charges me $25 for an incoming wire transfer from the UK, not $16 unfortunately

Theresa Kim

I have confirmed with the Bank of America that the fee for the incoming international wire transfers is in fact $16 — not the $25 that you were charged. $25 fee is only charged for outgoing domestic wire transfers.

For receiving transfers from UK to your Bank of America account, you should have only been charged with a $16 incoming international wire transfers fee. You definitely want to talk to your bank about this error and hopefully get your money back!

Hope this helps! Be sure to update us on what happens at your bank. Good luck!

Bob

Yes I was only charged 15 or was it 16 but I used an FX company to transfer from the UK.

http://www.joshuawinn.com/ forthewinn

Thanks for taking the time to reply to this Theresa (and making me aware of the discrepancy in the first place). I contacted the client, who contacted their UK-based wire company. And this appears to be an issue on their end, and they “made a change to the way in which they make payments on their behalf to the USA”, so there should no longer be this fee.

Theresa Kim

That’s wonderful news! You’re very welcome and I’m glad the issue was resolved (and hopefully you got your money back!). Thank you for sharing your story with us!

vadc1

Information may not be current. Citibank increased incoming wire fees to $15 on May 5, 2014, but it is not reflected in this article/table published in August and September.

Theresa Kim

The wire transfer fees have been updated for Q4 2014. Thanks for pointing that out!

Do you use wire transfers often? Which method do you use? Share your answers with us.

DANIEL R GONZALEZ

BBVA Compass domestic wire fees are lower than that of any of the banks listed in the article. Not sure on foreign, but domestic it’s $12 incoming and $24 outgoing.

Theresa Kim

Thanks for sharing that information with us! There definitely seems to be a correlation between the size of the bank and the cost of the fees. Hence, the top 10 banks generally have higher fees than smaller banks.

I think these prices are reflective of sending to different banks. I’ve checked online and Citibank has offices around the globe. And I’ve verified through a couple people that if you send money from your Citibank in San Francisco to another country’s Citibank, the transfer is completely free. I just might be switching banks… =O)

Theresa Kim

That’s correct! Transferring money to a different account under the same bank is usually free – which is one of the advantages of banking with a large bank with numerous branches across the world. Thanks for sharing!

Mat Schaffer

Word from my sources (and some commenters below) is that Citi charges now but didn’t used to. Might want to double check before switching banks

greatwolf

You should throw bitcoin in there and see how it stacks up with wire transfer and other methods of transmitting money.

Theresa Kim

Will definitely look into this in the future. Thanks for the suggestion!

http://www.onename.io/jeroenmerks Jeroen M

Bitcoin.

Samantha

the problem is Bitcoin sucks.. and it’s not stable at all.

http://gamingrevenueshare.com David B

I have found that Suntrust does not allow wire transfers from their online portal for my business account. Does anybody have a business account with a bank that allows the transfers to be done online? What are your fees and do you have any problems with the online interface?

David

I just called Bank of America — they charge $25 for a incoming wire transfer.

Jim

Theresa: EveryBill is a fantastic alternative to wire transfers. We set a business up to accept payment over the internet. We charge a monthly fee to host and support an ultra secure payment website. The per payment fee is .59 resulting in huge cost savings over time for a high volume business. A physical check can them be printed in your office on the same day that the check is written by your client or debtor.

Rich K

This is great information, have you seen anything comparable on the fee structure for European banks?

Ryan

I work
at an FX desk and make outgoing + incoming foreign wires all day long.

Foreign inbound is $0
Foreign outbound is $15.

Anyone interested in making transfers can send an email to alfaafla@aol.com and I’ll provide more detail

Just include which U.S. state you reside, whether you’re an individual or legal
entity, how much you intend to transfer and into which currency, and how often you intend to transfer + size of those transfers.

https://saveonsend.com/ Yakov Kofner

Hi Theresa, Thank you such great info! Maybe Citibank changed fees again after May 2014, but I just sent an international wire and they still charged me $35 as before (incoming fee is correct)… or maybe they have different fees for different account types.

With regards to the Tip of when to use a money transmitter or a bank, the situation has actually become more complicated in the last few years due to an increase in competition from money transmitters. For the most popular corridors out of the US to China, India, Mexico, and Philippines, the competition is fierce and banks don’t charge low enough total costs even for larger amounts quoted in that “Tip” box. Total costs include both the fees and the FX markup; and while $35-45 fee for sending $2500 is already higher than with the many money transmitters, it is banks’ relatively low exchange rate which usually takes them out of consideration even for larger amounts. Just a caveat that by “banks” we imply the “wire transfer” method of payment as suggested in your article. Some banks like Wells Fargo have their own money-transmitter-type service which usually has more competitive total costs.

Banks’ wire transfer might be still a good consideration in 2 cases

1) USD-to-USD for large amounts: if a destination country accepts $USD and the transfer amount is above $10K, $35-45 fee is relatively reasonable

2) Off-radar countries: there are countries which are small enough to be on a radar of money transmitters except ubiquitous Western Union and MoneyGram. For those destinations, WU and MG have naturally higher FX markups which are more in line with banks are charging. (However, another advantage of money transmitters is that they frequently offer promotions while for banks this line of business doesn’t seem to be valuable enough to really spring on marketing. I recently needed to send a sizable amount to a small country in Eastern Europe where my bank and Western Union had about same total costs, but Western Union was offering my first transaction for free)

We built this free tool to compare most popular money transmitter for top destinations out of the US – you could see how low the total costs are today with the least expensive providers even when sending $1-3K – https://www.saveonsend.com/

David Holland

PNC charged me $45 for domestic wire with a follow up fee of $79 for a total of $124!!! I’m canceling my business account with them

kv

Bank of America’s international wire transfer service sucks. It’s been 12 days I have not received my money. I requested a dollar to dollar transfer and all that they are saying is intermediary bank converted it to rupees and sent. They have raised a case and the intermediary bank is taking forever. Bank of America representatives I talk to are so rude and they say they can’t do anything about it. Their foreign currency department is terrible. Competitor banks are so much better. I’m thinking of terminating my accounts with Bank of America.

Wireboy

This article is wrong. Tried to wire on line bank of america. Stated exchange rate 5 per cent lower than actual-on $10,000 that $500 beyond the $35 fee.

http://www.mybanktracker.com Simon Zhen

Can you clarify the wire transfer that you tried to perform? As we stated above, for international wire transfers, you will find often find that the transferred amount is less than expected.

Catherine Minick

It is worth noting that Discover Bank charges 0 for incoming international wires – not sure about currency conversion fees

http://www.mybanktracker.com/ ClaireMBT

Thanks for letting us know, Catherine!

Thirunarayanan

Banks, or any financial institution, should not charge ANY fee for incoming wire-transfer. That is ridiculous. I understand the sending bank incur cost and, thus charge a fee, but no reason for the receiving bank to charge a fee

http://www.mybanktracker.com Simon Zhen

Banks probably justify it because it requires more work to process an incoming wire transfer than an ACH transfer.

Thirunarayanan

Simon Zhen, you are being kind to banks that are essentially greedy. The receiving bank does not spend a penny for the incoming international, for that matter even domestic, wire-transfers. The sending bank supports all the infrastructure expenses that the intermediate agencies charge.

http://www.mybanktracker.com/ ClaireMBT

It depends on the bank. Some banks don’t charge a fee if they are the receiving bank. For instance, Santander doesn’t charge a fee for receiving international wire transfers, even though they do for domestic.

Thirunarayanan

I found out credit unions generally do not charge fees for incoming international wire-transfers. Time to change your bank to credit union.

Jacques C

In the EU, when you receive a wire transfer in Euro, originating within the EU, you do not pay any incoming fee

Glynn

They certainly used to. I lived in France from 1996-2006, and worked for clients in other EU countries. Every time a wire payment was received, the banks charged the same transaction fee as they did before the Euro. The only advantage was that there was no longer an exchange rate loss on top.

Vijay

Wells Fargo charges $0.00 for international wire transfer if the value is more than $500.00. I am using the service for the past 1.5 years and it’s good. The currency value is good after conversion.

http://www.mybanktracker.com Simon Zhen

Which Wells Fargo checking account do you have? I don’t see this fee policy on their schedules.

Glynn

While credit unions are great for zero charges, I’ve been having a lot of issues with receiving international wire transfers. I live in the US, and have clients all over the world. I have accounts with two US credit unions, and both use Wells Fargo as an intermediary for international wires. Wells Fargo takes a nice big chunk as transaction fees, so while the credit unions don’t charge for receiving the wires, you’re still losing out at the sending end – often with no record of how much was deducted, and by whom.

Worse still is the extremely complex procedure. The sender needs to write the credit union’s name and account number, not my own, as the initial recipient, with my own name and account number included in the footnotes as “for further transfer to:”. This goes wrong half the time, and I get charged $80-100 for every failed transaction. If the sender follows the instructions, it works fine, but I guess it must seems counter-intuitive not to put the final recipient’s name in the “send to” box. After years of failed payments, I’m now looking for a bank that can do a direct wire, and will just accept the cost of doing business internationally.

http://vidFame.com/ Wolfgang Gabler

This is just unbelievable. I have several Bank accounts in Europe and I pay absolutely nothing for wire transfers. Not a single penny. – If you wire $100 in the US you will pay $15 = 15% of your money to the bank. To clarify this a bit… a wire transfer is an electronic way to wire virtual money from one place to another using a computer. If you would calculate the real costs for that procedure it would be for sure less than a penny on average… but why is it then so expensive in the US?

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